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Bavarian Brews 29 – On regional identity in food and drink

Regional belonging is a concept I struggle with as a Norwegian. The main reason is probably that we are just too small as a nation to develop much of a regional identity in the modern age, apart from speaking our own dialects. In some ways we are more of a Norwegian region in a Nordic context.

I spent a few weeks in Munich this summer as a participant observer, taking part in a work atmosphere – in an actual office, not an international conference. This also gave me the opportunity to seek out a fair number of licensed establishments in my spare time. This made me realize that there are strong similarities among Bavaria and Italy when it comes to pride in their region and its produce. It does not stop at the regional, but keeps going further – you also have a loyalty to your sub-region, etc down to your tiny village.

If you can source it locally, you don’t need to get anything from the next town.

Obviously this does not encompass capital goods, shoes, clothes and so on. But it is deeply felt in food and beer.

I get echoes from my old anthropology lessons here. There seem to be different spheres. There is the hi-tech Germany. The Germany of BMW, Siemens and what have you. This is the economic tugboat that tries to make the rest of Europe move along, grow and prosper.

At the same time you have this fascination for the local. For the village where you grew up. Where the traditional values are honored. Where they raise the maypole outside the inn as they used to do.

I looked up Heimat, which is a term that is at the core of this. Heimat has no English equivalent. It has to do with ancestry, community and tradition. It has to do with nostalgia for a life that has been lost – torn apart by war and dictatorship and later slowly eroded by economic forces or a government somewhere on the Rhine, or, more lately, the Spree.

We don’t have the word in Norwegian,, either. but it is a real factor for us, too, just beneath the surface. Our two referendums on membership in the European Union shows that Heimat and the contrast it offers to those who rule you or want to rule you trumps all other arguments when you really mobilize.

But back to the Bavarians and their regional cuisine. The menus are spelling it out. Bavarian asparagus. Bavarian beef and pork. Bavarian trout. Even vegetarian dishes turn up to be focused on Bavarian spuds and leaves. The Hofbräuhaus in Munich has a podcast that manages to find new angles every month. They often focus on where their vegetables, beef, cheese and lettuce come from, interviewing the farmers, who are not only Bavarian, but preferably live in Upper Bavaria.

Why is there a brewpub in Munich airport and not anywhere else? Look closer. Sure, they brew beer. But they also boast that 85 per cent of their supplies come from regional produce. Just what you need. It is the last and first stop of your trip to foreign lands, Prussia, or even further away.

There is a tragedy at the core of this. The attempts to build a national identity in the 19th and first half of the 20th were not successful. Even cheering for your national football team is a fairly recent event here. German patriotism has been deeply stained. So one has to look inwards, closer to home, to find identity. Living in a federal state with lots of decentralized power in regions larger than many European nations strengthens this trend, it actively encourages it. If you cannot fly your national banner, you can be proud of the Bavarian white and blue. And, in a land of agricultural plenty, let’s be proud of what we can produce. Which is a lot.

In a European market overflowing with cut-price meat and vegetables, butter and beer, the regional authorities and trade associations play on this sense of region and Heimat. Be sure to ask for Bavarian quality. Accept no substitutes. Other countries celebrate their days of liberty, of liberation or victories at land or sea. The Bavarians celebrate the Reinheitsgebot of 1516.

Sure, there are plenty of Italian restaurants. There are kebab shops on the corners, sushi conveyor belts and cheese counters in the big supermarkets where you can find Italian and French specialities. But the beer is most likely from the local area, even Getränkemarkt bottle shops will have a very limited range of beers. I managed to track down two beer shops in Munich with a broad range of beers.

A broad range means hundreds of different beers. Did I find any imports? About a dozen. BrewDog, Corona, Guinness and Pilsner Urquell. No Belgian, no English, no Italian beer.

If you look closely, you will find a few IPAs and imperial stouts, but they will be from Bavarian breweries. The innovation in the beer field is coming from small breweries in the region, which pose no danger to the big players. Speciality beers still basically mean beers from tiny family breweries, the most daring of them using smoke malt or having the rebellious streak of offering a Dobbelbock out of season. There is some hope in reports that the big supplier of malt in the region, Weyermann, actively encourages upstart breweries to look beyond the standard range and brew pale ales or other varieties. But you’re not likely to find a trace of these beers when you look at the statistics of annual consumption.

So, the important question: Will this change over time?

My guess is that the changes will come very gradually. There is some distribution of innovative bottled beers, but I don’t think they will rock the boat. What is needed is someone with financial muscle to establish something that could have an impact in Munich and create a buzz.

A Munich brewpub with a beer garden with ample seating for all seasons offering a broad range of beers with inspiration from Belgium and the US could do the trick. But someone with more knowledge about real estate in Munich than me should do the math.

I could be greatly mistaken. Things happen fast in the beer world. Maybe there will be a BrewDog bar and a Mikkeller Biergarten challenging the culinary conservatism in a year or two. But I think the odds are better for changes from within.

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20 Responses

Interesting post. Although I see that some of my bavarian friends have started drinking IPA’s and porters, I don’t think foreign craftbreweries will be successful in Bavaria in the forseeable future.

It’s not easy for a Foreign brewery to sell an unknown beerstyle, in a country where “Ur-Bayrisch” is among the highest praise,and where beer is extremely Connected to the national Identity.

For Bavaria is probably more a nation than a region. It’s important to remember that the Bavarians had their own king and army as late as 1918, and a strong Independence movement after both world wars.

And this sense of national Identity are probably even stronger among the youths, and have been growing the last 2 decades. Look at a Picture of the Oktoberfest during the mid-90’s and there is hardly anyone dressed in lederhosen or dirndl. I Guess the move of the Capital to Berlin, and the growing Power of the EU, has made it more important to embrace bavarian Identity and feel of nationhood, and to feel different from the rest of Germany (also known as Prussia).

And from a beer-tourists perspective I think this is a good thing. When I go to Bavaria I go there to drink Helles, Dunkels, Märzens, Bocks and Weissbiers. Not to drink Brewdog, Chimay or Sam Adams. And I’m not sure if the world need bavarian made “Me-too”-IPA’s or porters (although Camba Bavaria and similiar breweries does make some interesting foreign-style beers).

Coming a bit late to this, of course. Very interesting observations, and as someone who’s been living in Franconia (don’t call it “Bavaria”!) for a number of years, I agree with pretty much all of it. The only thing is about this quality of foodstuffs…not sure I’d say that just because it’s produced in Bavaria, that it’s necessarily of higher quality.

To me, quality in produce and meat is mostly related to how organically it’s grown. I’m skeptical of the idea that the massive beer halls use organic produce or meat, unless they specifically say so. There is no shortage of industrial Bavarian farming.

(Actually, I see on re-reading that I’m reading in too much about the quality issue, but I’m going to leave that in my reply anyway.)

An Englishman that says Germans shouldn’t brew anything but traditional German beer sounds to me like a German saying English brewers shouldn’t try their hand at Helles, Weizen, or Kellerbier, but should stick to bitter, mild, & co. Should the English be denied local attempts at good German beer?

Can’t I trade just one or two of the 270 (?) Franconian breweries, say, ones that consistently brew diacytel-laden murk or bland, over-sparged, hop-extract-laden Einheitsbier, for one or two English breweries?

Spot on, Nick. It’s not about a revolution, just opening up to a more diverse scene. Thank God the Norwegian beer market has improved since I was a teenager in the Seventies, when we had a Pils, an Export and a Dunkel. Period. All breweries brewed the same trio and split the market between themselves. I had to go to England to find out what beer was all about.

I guess it’s all about the balance between tradition and what I’ll call innovation (although I suspect what I really mean by that is “non-traditional”). I cut my drinking teeth in the UK at a time when the choice was limited to what are now often referred to as boring brown bitters and some milds, with maybe a stronger ale around Christmas time. The massive choice of different beers available in the UK nowadays – in many different styles and from many different countries – is, for me at least, tremedously exciting. However, when I travel to Bavaria, I’m primarily there for the local beers and traditions – even if I must admit to sometimes hanker for a little more style variation – not Brewdog. When I’m in the US I’m often exhorted to visit this or that awesome Belgian beer bar, in which I have not the slightest interest. Of course, travelling for beer is tremendous fun but none of us can be all the time so I’m pleased to be able to indulge in a varied beer diet closer to home.

In most parts of the world where beer geekery has taken hold, what the locals want and what the visitors want may not be the same thing. That does not seem to be the case in Germany, at least for the present, due to the combination of the heimat concept and the paucity of native beer geeks with eclectic tastes. Which may be no bad thing.

Bavarian’s have always thought of themselves as almost non-German, as has been mentioned already in this thread: but they are not alone in local people wanting/wishing their own identity away from their overall country. Listen to a Yorkshireman (not recommended) for long enough and he’ll tell you all about Gods Country and how Yorkshire should be it’s own autonomous State.

I love living in Shropshire, England. I love local beers and the foodstuffs our farmers put on my table: I am currently the ‘Ceremonial Ale Taster of Wellington’ , where I get to wear a special cloak etc to promote local produce whenever I can or am needed. I also love visiting Bavaria, Belgium, the US and travelling in general, but I want their local produce when I’m there.

So: lets keep things local and enjoy our own specialities whenever we can and also delight in other more far flung fine beers and products too. Embrace the world, but remember where you come from. I don’t want a Bamberg style smoked beer being brewed down the road thank you very much.

I’d add that in Franconia, which was only dragged into Bavaria by Napoleon’s antics, it’s even more regional. Franconians will say they’re Germans, just don’t call them *Bavarians*.

To each his own, of course. In one sentence, you suggest that we should delight in other far flung fine beers and products, but then two sentences later, you say you don’t want Bamberg-style beer being brewed in Shropshire. Do you mean, we should enjoy the foreign stuff only as imports?

I’m a ‘contradictory’ sort of bloke and often don’t know what I really mean. I suppose I’m caught between the two camps: I want local produce at home but don’t mind seeing the occasional import behind the bar or in the shops, the same when travelling, I’ve even bought Russian beers in Antwerp to bring home, which some would say is sacrilege.

In fact I’m trying to ‘drink around the world’ and have so far managed around 80 different countries, but only visited about 20 or so of them.

There’s also the issue of the bulk of present-day German beer being much more bland and non-distinct than it used to be. I’m not such a big advocate of wanting to keep German beer the way it is today, I’d rather advocate returning it to the way it was …erm… not sure how long ago, actually.

I agree with most of the people in this thread. I don’t mind the Germans breweing IPAs, but I would rather see them keeping the styles they do have alive, or resurrecting the ones they’ve lost. Three decades ago Märzen was a style of its own, but now it’s so close to Helles it’s hard to tell the difference. In Franconia loads of great little lager breweries are closing. Seeing them replaced with microbreweries making IPAs and porters seems like a terrible loss to me.

Having modern craft brewing come to Germany is fine by me, but I’d much rather see the Germans keep and revive their beer heritage. If the Germans aren’t going to brew Bremer Weisse and Steinbier, who will?

Not that what we think matters one whit. Eventually this will be decided by 80 million Germans voting with their wallets, and I can understand why they might go with the IPAs. There are fashions in drink in Germany, just like everywhere else.

Interesting thread. Just as Knut Albert, I also have a background in social anthropology, and this debate is linked to a much bigger discourse on the global vs. the local, ethnicity vs. global identity and conceptualization of authenticity. It’s pretty huge. I’m not gonna go into this in length, for obvious reasons, but I do feel like making a couple of points:

Which desires should have priority here: the desire for foreigners to experience “authenticity” (yes, the brackets do indicate the inherent fluidity of the term, as it is subject to considerable change over time and with the ebb and flow of trends) while going about their beer travels in Germany, or the desire of the Germans to brew the kind of beer they want? Right now, there seems to be little conflict between the two, but I can imagine that more and more Germans over time will be prone to desire international beer styles to be more available for them. If so: should Germans be encourage to not brew anything new, to not change too much, as it would no longer be as fun to be a beer tourist in Germany anymore? Who are we to tell the Germans how to brew? How to live?

Like Lars Marius in the previous post pointed out, it will ultimately be the Germans who decide their beer market, and I say: so be it. If they choose other paths than the current traditionalist: fine. I really wouldn’t mind a bit more selection of beer in Germany despite being just like most others on this thread when I’m there: I try to look for specialties. If they choose to stay on the path: fine, as well. Many have pointed out the inherent exoticism of visiting a different beer scene than ones own. In either case, I’m not too worried about traditional styles dying out; if it’s one thing the international craft beer wave has thought us, it is that brewers love digging into tradition, reviving lost beer styles and reveling in old recipes. Although they might tweak them a little, of course. 😉

I don’t think anyone here think we can influence the german beer-drinkers. But we are allowed to wish, aren’t we? 🙂

There is off course nothing wrong if germans should start desiring international styles. But it’s important to remember that it was like that the “Pilsner-revolution” started. And I don’t think any beer-lovers would like that history should repeat it self like that, even though the next pilsner might be called IPA…

So I think we should embrace the few traditional beer cultures that are left, like in Bavaria, Franconia or Belgium. And I hope the Bavarian drinkers will do the same for years to come, and that most Bavarian breweries would concentrate to make the best possbile Weissbier, Heller or Märzen istead of churning out Bavarian IPA*s or Stout just to try to be trendy.

But off course – if a Bavarian brewery should make a really great IPA or Stout, I will be the first to applaud. Just don’t forget your own culture and traditions…

So after 30 posts about Bavarian beer your conclusion is that they should be brewing more English styles? What a load of bollocks. And for the record I really enjoy your blog but it becomes increasingly irritating when non-Germans visit Bavaria and criticize the beer culture there because they haven’t embraced beer styles that are not there own to begin with. As if somehow offering up an Imperial Stout or some kind of Pale Ale is going to make the beer scene in the south of Germany somehow better. If that’s what you really think then I’m sorry but you don’t get it.

And why the hell should anyone … and I mean anyone applaud if a Bavarian brewery should make a “really great IPA or Stout”. The false presumption being that those beers are somehow superior to the German styles that they brew already. Well they’re not. And the arrogant, assuming, presumptuous attitude that I see here on this blog post and the follow up comments about the subject is un-bleeping believable.

Here’s a novel idea. Why don’t we hope and pray that the Bavarians and Franconians continue to brew the styles of beer that are their tradition and hopefully do an increasingly better job at it. Rather than learn to brew a British style of beer, how about brewing more Kellerbiers, more lager beers served Bayerisch Anstich, more variety of Bocks, Braunbiers, Dunkels, etc. Up the Bavarian flagpole with these British/American styles. We’ve got enough of that going on in other parts of the world.

If you visit Bavaria for more than a few days and you can’t be bothered to go 2 hours north of Munich to visit many of the wonderful country side bier kellers of pubs of Franconia then don’t waste your time criticizing Bavarian beer culture.

Oh and by the way the brewpub at the airport in Munich sucks. It’s nice for an airport but it sucks. I can’t believe that people actually rate Airbrau at the Munich airport as a reasonable brewpub. It boggles my mind. I’d much rather drink at Boston Beerworks at Logan Airport. I avoid the place when I fly home from Munich. It reminds me of Ambrausanium in Bamberg. Have they actually started brewing decent beer in the last two years?

Sorry for the rant but this attitude about the presumed superiority of IPA’s, Pale, Ales, Imperial Stouts, etc. has just gotten ridiculous especially when applied to Bavarian/Franconian beer.

Oh and don’t listen to Nick. He’s a frustrated Yank living in the middle of beer paradise that somehow still can’t find the beer he wants to drink. I’d personally love to be within a short train/bike ride of Roppelt’s Keller and I would hope all their ancestors would turn over in their grave if that place ever serves and English style beer like Nick would have them do.

Thanks for the comment. I don’t think the Franconians should be ditching their heritage, and if you read the previous posts, you will find a lot of praise for what I found. To use another country as an example, the British beer scene is a lot more interesting than it was ten years ago. The spectrum is bigger and better. That wouldn’t hurt in Bavaria , either.

I did read the previous posts but fairly quickly and am going to go back through them. I really enjoy reading this blog from time to time and was looking forward to you someday going to Southern Germany (hopefully Franconia someday too) and blogging about it. Admittedly I get wound up when I read comments (not just your blog post but on this thread and elsewhere) about how brewing IPA’s, Stouts, etc. would solve the problem of lack of variety in Bavaria. What I’d rather see is more breweries in the Munich area (big or small) like Ayinger that are brewing a nice variety of Bavarian style beers at a very high level of quality and serving them Bayerisch Anstich more often. To me there is a lot of room for improvement and variety within their own range of styles without having to add British and American styles to the scene. Not that I have a problem with a Bavarian brewery adding a Pale Ale to it’s lineup. If that’s what they want to do then go nuts but I don’t see any reason to give them any special kudos for it nor go out of my way to try an IPA brewed in Munich (if that were to ever occur).

I agree the British beer scene is a lot more interesting now but wouldn’t you say that for the most part that the experimentation and variety that has grown there is still within the range of British style beers? There’s no outcry for British breweries to start brewing Dopplebocks and Kellerbiers. Nor should there be. I like that fact that in Britain they have improved upon and pushed the envelope with their own styles. I was really pleased to return to Scotland in 2011 for the first time in almost a decade and to see how many more local breweries there were and how good some of the cask ales from small breweries like Plockton Brewery tasted.

Anyhow, sorry for the initially harsh reply. After rereading I admit to being a bit embarrassed about being such a rude ahole about it.

And comments about Nick were tongue in cheek. Just poking a bit of fun at him. I have drank a couple of times with Nick at Roppelt’s keller in Franconia and this sort of discussion about ales in Germany is an ongoing discussion with him elsewhere.

No offense taken, Mark. This was written in the hope of starting a discussion, and that certainly worked.
I’d say many of the best new British beers are very inspired by American beers, and there is a strong opposition to this among the traditionalists, look at the keg vs cask debate.

A late comment – but the Craft brewery Camba Bavaria is opening up a Taphouse in Munich With 40 beers on tap and 200 in bottles. And thankfully it looks quite traditional, although the beer selection will be much broader than what you usually will find in Bavaria.

Will definitely drop in the NeXT time I’m in Munich, although I will still prefer the Augustinerkeller and similar more traditional beergardens/halls when I’m in that part of the country…